Prayers for peace in Hiroshima

Hiroshima diocese is conducting a series of activities at the Memorial Cathedral for World Peace and other locations in the city to remember victims of the atomic bomb which fell here on August 6, 1945.

On Sunday, around 500 people carrying placards and banners reading â€śWorld Peaceâ€ť and â€śEnd Nuclear Powerâ€ť marched up the main street from Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park to the cathedral.

That evening, a Mass to petition for peace was held at the cathedral. Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, Secretary Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, was in Japan this week and attended the Mass.

Related activities were also conducted throughout the day. A symposium on the prospect of ending nuclear power generation was held on Sunday afternoon, echoing the central theme of a message issued last November by the Catholic Bishopsâ€™ Conference of Japan.

The program also featured comments from a Korean resident of Japan who survived the bomb and from mothers who had been forced to flee Fukushima in the wake of last yearâ€™s nuclear accident.

On Monday, around 400 people attended a â€śMass of Memorial for the Victims of Nuclear Weapons and Wars Everywhere,â€ť also held at the cathedral with Bishop Manâ€™yo Maeda of Hiroshima as the main celebrant.

At 8:15 a.m., the time the bomb was dropped, a minuteâ€™s silence was observed.

In his homily at the Monday Mass, Bishop Sueo Hamaguchi of Oita said that the events of last year, including the nuclear incident at Fukushima Daiâ€™ichi, illustrated â€śthe errors of this world,â€ť including human pride.

We must turn toward the source of salvation and share the journey of those in the midst of hardship, he said.

Hiroshima dioceseâ€™s peace activities will end tomorrow, with another Mass at the World Peace Memorial Cathedral dedicated to the victims of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki.